talk about peace blowing across the world. gorbachev reaches out but bush does not reach back. but then at the end of the decade the function is there. now the world will realize that madeleine albright said if we use force it is because we're the united states of america we stand taller and see further. serial huntington said something very profound the west won the world not for security of values or religion but superiority of application of organized violence. westerners forget that the

non westerners do not. but to have this policy to iraq have a million children have died and then after 9/11 fed is continue. and greasy the lions running from 8098 from 18980 iraq and afghanistan to the current administration. >> with your book the untold history of the united

states. >> but what we are said is not told to the university audience but it is told in the public schools are those who get history from television so that is what we try to challenge. a report card last year but also to look at math and science with high-school seniors show proficiency in u.s. history. that the report said only 2 percent can explain what brown feet board of education was about even

though it was implicit our kids don't know much history. what they do know is wrong. it is based on the work of greater science. but we have a big sweep because we could couple this with the showtime documentary to make it more dramatic. >> just like a basic text history 101. these books are not coherent. there is no pattern. we don't understand how that works. to some degree the united states always comes out ahead or okay. >> if you take if the

chinese history. >> to see it through the other rise in? >> but he said with gap what we said looks to the russians obamacare has some of that ability. >> talk about obama. your chapter is entitled provocatively. [laughter] in some ways they've made it worse. >> the longest chapter of the book. >> it might get longer. >> then i see the cuts that we have to make but to deal with a contemporary is a lot of interest in obama. then to pull back.

>> but there were people on the right to and those who would disagree to say he apologizes for america and pulls out from the allies and those that say he should not send troops to afghanistan in the first place. >> there was the tough group. the advisers that he bridal and called the economic advisers to timothy geithner, larry summers and peter norris said.

of the foreign policy team, robert gates up to his eyeballs most of the bad things the country has done for decades. >> but he promised he would pull troops out of iraq so he falls through on his promise. >> so they do not take it seriously enough. we think it has been a big mistake. one thing he said is that cut back on the bush secrecy and has not followed through. with the espionage act was passed three people were indicted we were critical of many things but with the

treatment of bradley manning it was very problematic but in some ways with bush and cheney for the war crimes committed so if you commit war crimes you walk free? if you expose then you are sentenced to jail? his policy is problematic. and with the case like yemen and then if it backfires the times square bombers. >> we have one minute left.

>> not only as factual but what form policy should we have? what would you do? >> impassioned and a love of mankind and a purpose a century of the common man because the world can cooperate and has as a bigger shark but cooperating. >> if we have the richest 300 people more than the

3,000,004 they have more wealth than the bottom 30% of united states we need to redistribute resources. >> during bad times they say you cannot live like that. what will the russians to? what will the chinese do? it is an old argument. this the bad guy because of the tax worse than we do. >> and ironically it is our space weaponry at this point* that devolves into the electronic space shield with a triple canopy by 2020 we could become a fascist force in the universe is

like the "star wars" room stage moment to follow our conscience? were the base instinct? >> thank you.

>> jake tapper third book "the outpost" talks about one of america's deadliest battles. [applause] benjamin busch an actor, a photographer film director and u.s. marine corps infantry officer serving two combat tours his book talks about his marine training and deployment during a the

worst of the of war. benjamin busch. [applause] brian castner three tours of duty in the middle east from the ordnance disposal unit in iraq when he returned to life and family he said he began to struggle with an unshakable feeling. "the long walk" shows the toll that war takes. brian castner. [applause] >> enjoy men. >> it is a real honor to be here i want to think they're ready involved especially middle is a true honor to be on a panel with two veterans

to serve as the marines and the air force. i don't belong on a panel with people who lived through at. lastly there are veterans who were in my book better here stand and a day for in the book. [applause] one of the things i amassed why did i write a book about this one combat outpost? it is not my area of expertise but i am a correspondent with abc news. i feel i did not pick that combat outpost but i felt

like the outpost picked me on 2009 and was in the recovery room with my wife jennifer and a holding our one day old son and everything was fine. on the television i heard a story that was harrowing of a remote outpost that i had never heard of from the pakistan border 53 u.s. troops facing an onslaught of 400 have been. a draft stage -- horrific day and how other sons were taken from us. i could not get it out of my head but the coverage was why would somebody puts an outpost in at the bottom of

the border? nobody answer the question when the military investigated they said there was no strategical or tactical purpose. and i was haunted. why would anybody point* to a camp there? it was a mystery we had to solve. the more i found on the outpost then i heard amazing feats of hair was the allman died at point* to either trying to engage the enemy or save another soldier. their stories were another -- never told. high got a book contract to write about it it was just going to be about the last

platoon in their experience but men then i started to hear from the troops that served at that outpost keating from other years that i got a call from 371 regiment that wanted the booktv bigger and more comprehensive or other troops that have sacrificed so much. medal of honor winner and a kid from oklahoma who gave his life with the afghan soldier. then dave and served with the group. they actually had a successful year with the outpost. starting with the deaths of two brave men but as the

year went on that only an outpost as a story a failure but for some time was a success. this became a real calling to right to i was laughed out of my slumber. i was covering the war from the comfort of the north lawn of the white house and does numbers in retrospect seem meaningless without a fight between a crystal and president obama but not in tow i embarked on this project that became to many in the standing what our troops go with me -- to sit

with me goes through and what we as a nation and don't recognize that we are incredibly blessed to have people like this do this for us and their stories actually even though we do not cover them much or as much as they should be the his the people think the war is a bummer that the stories are inspiring and the people do for one another with the strength and resolve fact our troops have even those who make mistakes and screw up is something we should be thankful for. that is why i wrote the

book. with like to take a second you had a brief part of the book to read which is you know, how london's that the outpost is overrun and ultimately the u.s. to strays the outpost that so many soldiers had died to maintain and serve. that is not a spoiler alert but the part that is the most provocative. >> it was dark and in addition to the rest special forces troops have arrived in into a bird cleaning the village and had other provisions at the end of the battle. the captain went up to the barracks and then they saw the lieutenant's select. have done a wonderful job

for prime commander now. then he exhaled and rolled his shoulders. you have done an incredible job. there right not many places to sleep that night just the ground around them. few slept well. october and afghanistan it was chilly some troops on a worn t-shirts waking obsessively then losing all of the close in the fire. the red platoon troops while the bastards held together. that is the name of the troop. they curled up in a fetal position with a day's worth of sweats and smoke. then they walked outside to the dying fire crackled and aglow stick flickered a blue light. somebody was singing. i have not seen the sun

shine since i don't know when. chris jones and his guitar has survived. he was playing johnny cash sitting in the middle of the barracks with his tennessee twang. the white noise emanated wasn't interrupted he thought about the men killed they all went to bet thinking they would get out of the valley but the mountains had gotten them first. now i will handed over to my friend. [applause] >> much may not be reflected we do appreciate when a serious journalist takes our stories of to bring them home because we may not have the chance to articulate those thoughts and

observations. i did not set a to right a warm and more. "dust to dust" is about our place in time but because i went to war if it is a part of the journey and part of our nature with this weakness of conflict the matter how far we progress says people or how much hope we have that discussion can help us avoid the absolute and most definitive ability to articulate concession which is a war. i will read a little piece i

think it is to put into context but not describe it to. for us all war veterans it is part of the individual history. says many set out to seek. this is from the chapter ash >> i convinced myself i was in full verbal -- not vulnerable. carelessness was required. marine acceptance everest was ordinary. we became accustomed to a endangerment and took the first casualty we were at a loss to believe it then went back like nothing had happened. my family worried of keeping their worry from me as much as they could. i expected to be killed in

armani after was wounded it was worse for my wife expanding my peril and their imagination and vulnerability exposed but the belief and the mortality in the search and of doom have a lack of anxiety. on june 16 going south across the river tracks and i will talk about this section. and i had a good friend that was a captain and commander of a company of marines. june 16 that would be considered a common mission mission, had a search and detonation mission was

running south you are in

great peril. no. it is too perilous. we were like-minded how to approach the embattled city. i would spend the night looking over the wreckage while we waited for a vehicle to come. there were too many memorial ceremonies and i attended them all. on the night of a holy day i could hear the broadcast praying and of voice spread out the they could not interpret the feel that i may understand that is why a the randomness blind to the world as we see it to recognize what is solid and what is not it is the same

world to mend. they hunt insects and hunt each other everything is similar and moving through the dark with a night vision goggles and was out all day on patrol thinking it would not need them. but you always bring all of your gear not knowing how the day would and. there is no depth perception he cannot see the dust but you know, it is there. the phosphorus burn and the tracers are to bright banners:as fast as they pass you order the family into the room be few but you're out of water for crow then they hurled themselves someone is shooting for but

he may be there all night to. you may be there for the rest of your life. you don't know anyone. with the rules of engagement before you can find reasonable certainty you're in the middle of an urban sprawl your vehicle is upside-down with attires burning extinguishers are expanded and marines are throwing sand in the wreckage you can smell the smoke with but it is not your house you have invaded the family just waits for you to leave somebody is still shooting. with hachuring imagination to see something moving that cannot be identified, you hold your fire and position. you do not want to let

anyone down. bullets had gone out so we gathered our wreckage and somebody who live there for those that were left for us. 215 days we threw ourselves that the city at headquarters 100 meters away the marines read our reports and a past bias without noticing any one. i go into that with the book afterlife of chasing endangerment to a certain extent the uncertainty fascinated me as did my environment so the book ends up being about our landscape and how we perceive it as fascinating in their use and

overtime it changes. stone, ellwood, rocks, water going from the unknown of curiosity to being a threat. and the natural defiance of us whizzing our lives in defiance of mortality from childhood to our elder years where we become the archive. to this thing that holds so much of what we have lost. memory survives. with enough memory the afterlife of so much. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. also think you to the organizers of miami book

fair. when i started to write my book i did not expect i would be seated on a panel with these gentlemen. we have heard so far is a lot of war stories represent the need to explain. why was there and help us to admit -- an outpost for there should not have been? who was high before war and how did that affect me when i was over there? i wrote a memoir but i do now realize that is what i was writing this or that would be the title or the shell fire was so naive about the publishing world. i thought i was writing a story to me and my friends. it was to explain how did i

end up like this will explain to my children this is why daddy is crazy to put it on a shelf for when they were older. there are three kinds of four books. the top-level explanation when john keegan writes that is what happens if i was not in a position to right that but there was said detailed recreation of a specific time or place it is a gift that mine memories were so fragmented they were very specific on particular days than one month of september september 2006 i do not have much the kidnap have

recreated that so the third book is to try a to get the feeling right to what does it feel like to come back to get shot at? were to come home from matter to walk through the airport that you realize who will you shoot in case something goes wrong or drive down the road put your son in the hockey gear to realize here actually putting him in the bomb suits and sending him off to work on the idd. that is the book i tried to right to the average experience. of percent surveyed duty

officer and ordinance disposal that is the bomb squad. we all go to the same school and are interchangeable so i was assigned army unit the navy is assigned to the marines and we are mixed up and we work together. cited a couple two hours but a couple of normal day's issue were called you take apart a car bomb and we had a stretch of a lot of car bombs every day. of those 50 we managed to take apart one of them. 49 detonated. and then it is like scsi you figure out what it was, who

the target was there and collect evidence day by day and put it in a report and you did that every day. the mission is if we cannot stop the car bomb or the idb then everybody comes home all 30 of us went together and we will come back. my whole unit came back together. i was very lucky. at home i had a completely average experience. and i am not comfortable speaking for any veteran. everybody fought there own war and reacted differently but my experience is i had trouble thinking about anything other than

grief, the fear has what kind of person m i that came, as much as this year of being in any surrounding. i knew i was safe in my head but not in my gut but you come home and i got out of the military. i elevated eight years. your war is over but theirs is not. you worry for them. i was at the pentagon and was there when a colleague of mine got a silver star for his actions in afghanistan. he was clearing a landing zone they called in the medevac he tried to clear the area he steps on one and

he lost both legs and a left arm. when i say i am lucky with an average experience he is my reference. he may say he is lucky people put him three tourniquets on him. then we have a memorial in florida where the tax code to school for everyone who died in the line of duty since world war ii. we put more names on the memorial last year since 1945 and 120 since then 11. that number may feel low compared to the thousands we have lost that is 120

brothers and sons and we are a small community. that is the grief you process and your own fear of death and i don't have a good answer to figure that out but i am not sure i did but i tried to weave so as to threats that felt like it was happening at the same time so i would like to read from the beginning of the book to give you a sense of how it feels and running

helped me spin as a first thing you should know is i'm crazy. i have not always been and tell the one day that i went crazy i was fine. nodded a more. my crazy is a feeling the worst feeling i have never had and it never goes away. you make a list of people you have told that you come out. a best friend but not another. gem, john, craig. wife. but not your mother. those who will get it. now i tell you that i'm crazy and i don't know why. second, i do not know how to fix it or control it crazy is winning. so i run every day sometimes

twice a day out the front day -- bore -- a door glass swamps of debris and trash filling the sidewalks and steps. i runs red dust cloud that was kicked up and i run past the screaming women that don't show up. they should've made them shut up and i had the chance. a run as fast as i can my feet hitting the pavement all along the river. i run in the heart -- hottest part of the day under this summer sent as the heat rises to racy. the crazy feeling is still winning. sweat comes into my eyes and down my face. kermit skin was split when

they found him to put him in the box. i run every day on the road stretching to my left occasionally with low trees blowing in the sunshine. my left knee started to ache 5 miles ago by throat closes enmities are writing and the detonation has split my ears and dismantles the robot and covers the of armored truck with molten steel. reach former rifle. i run to the hon of of the diesel engines. the crazy in my chest is almost bursting but the protests of my lungs are done. a the feeling never leaves but it makes it scream louder to run. why not? the flood is in the box

bright don't want to stop. the adrenaline has been building all day and has a release. lakes and arms pond and swing and when i stop the crazy feeling starts. my eye twitches and i speedup again. my head swims. helicopters and dust. i put the rifle down and take off the vast. and my knee is screaming louder than the women. i run and run and run and then i tried to pound out of my head what once was. thank you. [applause] the senate now is the time for questions if anybody has

one. >> in the last year we heard the antics of general the crystal and general allan commanding 60 or 70,000 troops with their girlfriends and talking about the president, how do you react? >> did everybody hear the question? from my level, i it was never touched by the politics of almost anything other then being sent to war. the soldier is a tool of

this day and is made to be betrayed. that is the deal even unwittingly will discover that. i don't know if pop policy directly affects it on the ground. i am of split opinion has a veteran i don't see how effective the war but as a voter it is a little embarrassing. >> the only thing to add, i should reinforce the idea of the policy has so little to do with the time that you are there. my war was so small. 30 guys and getting home safe. we did not sit around a fire at night to to talk about which the president are journalist was disappointing

as. general pretorius was beloved at the time. and i feel so disconnected from the question. what i did and why we did it was not based on the speech from washington because it was love of the man next to you. it is a cliche will men jumping out of the trench but that does not keep it from being true. questions like that i focus on the small part that i could do something about. >> the war is as small as it is for you. a general expressing opinion is something we could use more of.

but the overall worry is if someone is hiding something, what else are they hiding? how much of anything is ever true? it is on a level of such high discussion that you have to diffuse the bomb and i have to keep 150 marines from being dead. does anyone notice? becomes over detachments of how much of the war is real to those not actively in engaged on the ground. >> i am not a veteran but i see myself as an advocate just because he sits right here. i wanted to read the passage

if you keep said general betray as high jinks in mind this is what the first attendant was going through a 1.2 thousand seven. >> up the mountain the first platoon regaining used to a lifestyle even more spartan than the one down the hill. six weeks in choose there say they could use any shampoo and was still on the first bar of soap. the part was fine he had not worn deodorant in three months he rotated his clothes on a monthly basis. the platoon had run out of forks and spoons so they would stick to any spoon they found into their pocket or lick them clean so others could use them. with the outpost for the reconstruction team in the area the mp unit was not replaced so the first

platoon troops literally have not seen a woman in months. was an odd sensation as if men are the only ones left on the planet. in this one apache pilot flew soldiers would crowd around the radio to hear her voice. they had not seen her but all were convinced she was gorgeous. that is what they were going through. may general pretorius could say when he was going through with his biographer i am embarrassed at somebody who knows some of these guys that would live that kind of life while our troops are entering what they are injuring but it is life. i am embarrassed and outraged. [applause]

>> have a like to ask the warriors this question if your books has been welcomed by a the military and used for those who are traumatized from the stress disorder to look through some of what they're feeling or going through that could be very valuable? especially for those who have not had access because it may help the nation be more thoughtful about entering wars in the future. >> my biggest worry when i wrote the book is what would my brothers in arms think

about it? i do not sweat "the new york times" book review but if that went perfect and my brother said he should not have written it for you did something wrong or you took advantage then i would want to find every copy and burn it. fortunately it has been the exact opposite in the reaction has been other tax tell me they've got the copy but their father will tell me their son bought it and gave it to them and said this explains me. to have that reaction is not why i wrote it but it helped to inform somebody else's is an amazing compliment so i

am very fortunate to that it is far more than i deserved. >> my book is not really a war memoir but it is about the journey for child takes toward endangerment. when i have found is mothers especially and some fathers and wives combat veterans are serving in the military in forms with they cannot yet articulate to which is interesting we're all different we have made it verges which took me from

being a studio art major to infantry officer to the war to the hbo series and actor to writing poetry and crafting a book that tries to describe our place in the universe and a war is part of the story but it is a succession of choices that we make and how it becomes who we are. a few marines i have served with reid says because it is a very visual book and has more perspective and the people in my family are rarely mentioned because it is about what i see and i try to let "the reader" watch with my eyes and hopefully those are the

things that they know it is their river and what they know and that is what makes the book talk to the bigger things that it talks to the military experience because my marines patrol the same road by looking at different things. their story of the same walk would be fascinating to me because we look at what fascinates us. a strange answer to your important question. [laughter] but it does explain the untested child and unearned confidence to be fascinated with uncertainty and sometimes with that may lead

to. >> because it is not the nature of a soldier or marine to complain or state anything publicly to get them in trouble, we have a public health crisis with the gse and it needs to be acknowledged by a car leaders. there is a huge backlog at the veterans hospital and around the country. generally speaking to people try to do is the best job that they can. but there is a huge crisis and 2 million people who serve in iraq and afghanistan but the 25% have spee to est and those of the one said acknowledgement. only a small percentage seek treatment and it is not that good or effective. a lot of it is medicinal. this is a problem that is

not going away. these people walk our streets and need help. digest want to say itouch on this with one of the survivors. end has horrible peach est and ultimately overdoses and dies one year after the attack. today's after the overdose 58 called to let his family know he was late for his appointment. there is a lot of talk about this during the election year. >> a backlog is 50 years old because we did not acknowledge during vietnam's flosses not on the exponential but incredible. what we should have learned

from the veterans of vietnam or what they told us that this will be bad. talking to veterans from that war because i had access to them. to on that particular subject, they would say how are you? how is the of war with you? is what they're asking me. how is the war with you? if i said i am fine. they said great. give it 20 years. what do you mean? it doesn't go anywhere. childhood does not leave us we cover it up but we carry it to all and that trail that is us. it is history. it is all there but when it

chooses to reveal itself or find a way back is the great unknown and it is the concern every veteran has. "the daily beast" by talk about that. these things wait. sometimes you need a larger context. people are tough and we have a wonderful ability to read press as one of our greatest gifts. we're built to be afraid. you can turn that off and say thanks for the message that you can also repress certain things to survive them because you cannot

handle them. the book was born at of my parents' deaths. my daughter was one-year-old when i got home she did not know me and within one year i had lost both of my parents. i had enough deaths and i was not the one that left. shockingly. i was the one who survived. and confronting my parents' death i realized my incredible ability to disbelief that which is inevitable. the talks about the mortality of our parents. relearn it is wrong. but we don't believe it. who knows?

but i completely agree and i am glad you bring visibility to that. in your profession you deal with the people who make that policy. embrace that veteran and ask for a story. it is a way to let the fire out. >> but first of all, thank you for being here. one of the most fascinating panels over the last three years. with the decision to become a soldier to put yourself in nine wear somebody else is in charge of what you do of your life and experiences you've had there, how difficult or easy it was